He was appointed professor of military technology at the Army Academy, as well as tutor and aide de camp to Crown Prince Constantine.

[1] At the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, with the rank of colonel, he assumed the duties of chief of staff to the Crown Prince, who exercised the overall command of the main Greek field force, the Army of Thessaly.

Promoted to major General in 1909, in 1910–12 he was Chief of the Army Staff Service of the Ministry for Military Affairs.

[1] On 9 April 1912 he was appointed prospective commander-in-chief of the Army of Thessaly in wartime, as well as chairman of the Revisionary Military Tribunal.

[1] With the outbreak of the First Balkan War, on 5 October 1912, he was placed in charge of the Army of Epirus, a post he held until 11 February 1913.

Faced with superior Ottoman forces (some 15,000 men with 32 guns of the 23rd Regular and 23rd Reserve Divisions) as well as the strongly fortified position of Bizani, which guarded the southern approaches to Ioannina, its mission was entirely secondary to the main Army of Thessaly, led again by Crown Prince Constantine.